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Old 22-01-2021, 07:55 PM
astro744
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astro744 is offline
 
Join Date: Apr 2007
Posts: 1,244
If you were into imaging then you’ll probably agree that one should put their money towards the best, largest and sturdiest mount they could afford and then put whatever money they have left toward the OTA. The mount is the cornerstone of your setup and needs to be as stable as a rock.

When doing visual the most important thing is not the telescope but the eyepiece. Get it right and you can use it on any telescope you decide to own. At f4.5 you are going to want an eyepiece that is highly corrected at that focal ratio. Yes you have a Tele Vue Paracorr and it will give you nearly f5.2 but it is designed to correct for primary mirror coma and it does a fantastic job in doing so but you still need a highly corrected eyepiece to start off with to ultimately end up with those pin point stars to the edge of field and across the entire field with the worst aberration being very slight field curvature if any (telescope design dependant; none in NP-101 for example). The cheaper eyepieces will have significant field curvature (and other aberrations) giving the classic response by many saying it is very sharp until the outer 30-40%. Of course one has to start somewhere and my first 2” eyepiece and one I still have is the Celestron 32mm Erfle. I used it on my 6” f5.5 as a beginner not knowing what aberrations even look like let alone have them bother me. I enjoyed it. I now use Naglers and Panoptics for low power and enjoy them too. Note you’ll here many times that the cheaper eyepieces work fine in slower f ratio (say f8-f10 but really closer to f15-f20) instruments and whilst this is true to some degree you will also find the highly corrected ones work better.

Tele Vue eyepieces are designed and tested to f4 and I highly recommend you invest in something they have to offer. Of course the larger longer focal length and wider apparent field are expensive perhaps double the cost of the OTA you have but they can be used on any telescope of any design you are ever likely to own. These are the cornerstones of your visual setup.

As to which eyepiece you choose comes down to personal preference on apparent field and eye relief, i.e. do you have astigmatism in your eyesight that requires glasses when observing? (Tele Vue has Dioptrx to correct this). How old are you a small this determines maximum exit pupil that you can accomodate?

I would recommend for your setup under your rural sky conditions the following:

Tele Vue 31mm Nagler (82 deg apparent field) for a 2.6 deg true field and 6.9mm exit pupil giving 29x without Paracorr and 2.3 deg true field and 6mm exit pupil giving 34x with Paracorr.

And alternative if you are younger and have dark skies would be a 35mm Panoptic giving a little less true field and a little larger exit pupil, (slightly brighter images) but you are bordering on too large an exit pupil for you sky conditions so I recommend the 31 Nagler. (35 is still quite useable for low power given your location).

If you don’t want to spend the money on the 31mm Nagler then I recommend the 27mm Panoptic (68 deg.apparent field) for a 1.9 deg true field and 6mm exit pupil giving 34x without Paracorr and 1.7 deg true field and 5.2mm exit pupil giving 39x with Paracorr. Note you do loose a bit of true field which for an object like the Pleiades is important as really over 2 deg is required to see them framed the best. The Eta Carina nebula with a 2 deg field and O-III filter is stunning.

Yes you can spend a lot of time and money trying different types and brands and sometime that will be the only way to find tune your selection. You will get numerous opinions on what’s best and what works but I believe seeing for yourself is the best method of choosing and going to star parties is a great way of doing that. Unfortunately this is not an easy task in these times of Covid. I would say just buy the best you can afford and for me the Tele Vue offering has all I need although I do have other eyepieces which I also enjoy namely Clave and Brandon. I have not used every Tele Vue design so I cannot comment on many particularly the newer post Ethos era. Nor have I used many alternative wide field brands so again cannot comment on them and no doubt others will chime in. It was an alternative low power 30mm/80deg. eyepiece that got me onto Tele Vue and the difference was astounding. At f4.5 you wont go wrong with Tele Vue.

Whatever you choose, enjoy you visual experience!
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